Thursday, August 23, 2007

In fact we've been back for nearly two weeks but we've been kind of busy during that time - mostly with unpacking and laundry and playing chauffeur for me and catching up with friends and snowboarding camp for the kids.

We had a great holiday - went away with three suitcases and came back with five! Mostly stuff for the kids (games, books, clothing, etc) plus a heap of books and DVDs for me that I can't get here. In Hong Kong on the way back home we spent a day at Stanley Markets and bought ski gear for all us - good quality stuff and very cheap! We are planning to go to the French Alps during the winter break hence the need for the ski stuff.

It was nice to catch up with family and friends while in Australia and I got to meet my nephew for the first time too. He's a cutie and a livewire and is certainly going to keep his family on their toes!! My niece has grown considerably taller and is getting more beautiful by the day. She is only nine years old but is now as tall as her 12yo cousin (DS) and me (which isn't very tall really!).

I managed some stitching (mostly on a mystery WIP which is going to remain a mystery for a little while longer ... because I'm evil - lol!). The lighting wasn't very good in the holiday apartments we stayed at, so I mostly stitched early in the mornings before everyone else got up. I did buy one of those little itty-bitty clip-on craft lights and it helped a little to stitch at night but we were quite busy socialising so I mostly read.

I joined the RBL Summer Mystery Reading Challenge earlier this summer and so far have managed to read nine books! All by the same author, Kerry Greenwood, an Australian author, who I read about on the RBL site. Our apartment wasn't quite ready when we arrived in Adelaide so we went for a walk down the main shopping street (five mins away from the apartment complex) and the first store I came across was a book store - lol! The kids and I walked out with an armful of books and several dollars lighter in the purse! Anyway, getting back to Kerry Greenwood (I am easily distracted!!), I picked up the first three books of the Corinna Chapman series - Earthly Delights, Heavenly Pleasures and Devil's Food plus the first six books in the Phryne Fisher series. Wonderfully light and quick reads - I really enjoyed them. I have two or three others on the go but whether I will manage to finish them before the 31st of this month remains to be seen - especially since the kidlets are still on holidays. A little over a week to go!

Okay, children need to be feed so I'll sign off for now. Hopefully I'll get a chance to catch up on my blog reading over the next week or two although I suspect that that may have to wait until the kids are in school. I also hope to have some pics next post too - just need to download them off the camera :)